Reunion
by Denebola Leo
Summary: Cloud has been acting stranger as they come ever closer to Sephiroth. Will he and his friends survive the ordeal as a Lovecraftian force pushes itself into the mind of our hero? (One-Shot)


**Why, Hello there! This will be a bit different than my other stories, and I must warn you right now that if you do NOT like body horror or think your imagination is a bit too vivid, you should probably not read this. Please. I think I did okay since after all, it's my first time delving into that little genre, but you be the judge.**

 **This is a horror take on what happens at the Whirlwind Maze. I think certain subjects were underused and really, FF7 should have had a lot more horror involved in it. Well, tell me what you think if you decide to read this thing I made over two days, and thanks to Nautilusopus for inspiring my brain.  
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This place. Desolate, cold, the wind howling to the green tinged sky with the pain and rage that had ached in the Planet for two thousand years. Not a scrap of life outside the terrible monsters that roamed the rocky, barren landscape beyond Gaea's Cliff could be found, besides these eight tired, wary warriors.

Cloud, Tifa and Nanaki grouped together, the others finding their way through the Whirlwind Maze on other paths after the one behind the trio collapsed. Tifa felt uneasy, especially with the sporadic nature Cloud had been featuring since their last camp. Quiet and sullen since Aerith's murder, her dried blood still staining the front of his shirt no matter how hard he scrubbed, Tifa would find him mumbling to himself when they made camp and while he was doing his shift to watch for danger at night.

"Get out of my head..."

"Go to...Reunion."

"Sephiroth is waiting."

Tifa pretended to be asleep while he stood watch. Once or twice she would feel his eyes on her, and she wasn't sure if it was because he was checking to make sure she was alright or if Sephiroth had plans for her, too, attempting to use Cloud once again as his psychic extension. Tifa glanced at him as they reached a broader part of the rocky path. She wasn't even sure if he was Cloud of Nibelheim. The way he acted half the time was unlike the person she remembered, even though he looked exactly as she thinks he should. He remembered things he shouldn't and didn't know things he should, but why?

There had been no record of a Cloud Strife in SOLDIER, either. She had asked Jessie over a year ago out of curiosity, unsure of his whereabouts before he reappeared in her life again.

Of course when Jessie asked about it Tifa had to convince her that perhaps he had left Shinra by then and was in another record. Jessie had seemed unconvinced but smitten with the cold mercenary, and the issue simply never came up again.

Their eyes were sunken in with dark circles from lack of any real sleep, skin cracked from the whipping, icy wind of the inhospitable terrain they had spent the last several days traversing. What little was left of the warm clothing they bought at Icicle Inn clung to the two fighters in tatters from monster attacks and sharp rocks; Nanaki had not fared much better as talons scratched at his hide often and his fur was matted from blood here and there. Materia and potions kept them all going for now, but for how long they couldn't say. Their food provisions were low, and they had used the last of their dried fruit and jerky the night before. This was it.

The three passed the harsh, violent whirlwind that was laced with poisonous mako, Tifa nearly falling off the edge as they traversed the deadly path. Cloud had grabbed her forearm, desperation in his eyes despite his ever stoic face. It was as if if he lost her, he might lose himself, and Tifa wondered if that might be so. When she had met him at the train station in the Midgar slums, he was babbling nonsense until she cautiously touched his arm, and it was as if she had reset his brain. _'That's right, I'm Cloud!'_

"The Black Cloaks..." Cloud mumbled. Up ahead a dozen of them conglomerated, hoods still hiding their faces as they watched the three approach. Tifa shuddered, back in Nibelheim when no one was looking she had glanced under the hood of a copy, and she almost fainted when she recognized who it was.

It was Quentin, one of the boys she had played with when she was a little girl.

Only he was pasty white and slack-jawed, eyes green and inhuman, mumbling about Sephiroth and a reunion. Like Cloud. She wanted to tell Cloud, but with the arrival of Vincent and Yuffie's subsequent harassment of the mysterious man, it all fell by the wayside. She wished she had spoken up.

Sephiroth appeared behind the pathetic human shells, smiling and holding that damned, accursed Masamune of his in one hand and the black materia in the other. Tifa readied her fists and Nanaki growled, leaning low to the ground. Hate poured off Cloud like a heavy miasma, but he hesitated in his march. "Sephiroth!" he yelled, his face twisting with rage and sweat on his brow despite the chill.

"You have made it..."

Cloud pointed the Buster Sword at his nemesis. "It's time to end this."

The air became still, deadly still. "This is the Reunion. The beginning _and_ the end."

Cloud paused, jarred by the words. "Re...union..." he mumbled. He took a few slow steps towards the huddled mass, his sword lowering.

"Cloud?" Tifa queried. Her eyes widened in shock as he turned to look at her; his eyes momentarily green and cat-like, unsettling and wholly alien before returning to a deep and glowing blue. Her voice seemed to have snapped him out of whatever it was that had had his attention.

Sephiroth laughed, and then so too did the Black Cloaks, in unison with the madman. "To be whole again. That is Reunion." Cloud looked back as Sephiroth spoke.

"Whole again...?" Nanaki murmured, his tail twitching and eye looking worriedly between Cloud and the copies.

The Black Cloaks very slowly peeled away the black clothing that had covered them for years, revealing pale naked bodies; many sported deformities and mutations that the thick robes had hidden from view. Tifa felt bile rise in her throat, recognizing most of the faces despite them all sporting the same, horrible green eyes. These were the survivors of the Nibelheim Incident. If Cloud recognized them she couldn't tell, but she did see the glimmer of terror in his eyes. This wasn't right.

Some sported small limbs that clung to their greasy looking bodies, sometimes ending in human hands or stumps, and others with claws. Lumpy hide covered part of an arm or a back here and there while dark blotches seemed to slowly move under the surface. Slowly opening, gummy eyes watched from arms or torsos or legs and folds of pasty skin laid atop one another as if stretched for too long in multiple places. Tifa swore one had a closed mouth on the side of their hip, a raised bump with a slit and liquid dribbling out. The wind blew, and a hideous stench came from them.

All she could think was that these were people she knew five years ago. People with lives and families.

Sephiroth lowered his arms, his vile eyes staring straight into Cloud's soul. "My shades...my puppets, come back to their Mother at last." One of the mutants, the old inn keeper's son, hugged him by the chest, the side of his face plastered to the smooth skin of its handler. "One...by one...they come back to me again..." The voice of Sephiroth grew ever softer and more feminine, the hairs on the back of her head raising. Masamune disappeared, and Sephiroth brought his hand to the filthy back of the one who embraced him.

Tifa looked back at Cloud, his mouth in a grimace as he stared Sephiroth down; his eyes kept...shifting. Subtly she would notice it, and now she knew; it meant Sephiroth was trying to influence him. She wondered how, and the reason jumbled into her mind as if a psychic being had heard her question and decided to respond.

Jenova. This was Jenova.

But it hadn't afflicted other SOLDIERs. There was just this huddled, quivering mass acting almost as a human shield between them and their target, Sephiroth. And Cloud. Why?

She turned her head back to Sephiroth, and she almost screamed. The one embracing his master was slowly melding with him face first, his exposed eye looking around and almost bulging as a dark viscous fluid seeped out not from the tear duct but from behind the eyeball, lifting it in the socket somewhat as it oozed. His arm slowly moved to grasp a smaller being as he slowly disappeared into Sephiroth, hand to head with the little one. Skin raised up in large bubbling lumps as forms twisted out of the soft flesh, a loud moan pouring out of his mouth before disappearing into the formless chest of the one he melded to.

The new member of the growing conglomeration's face distorted as if putty, the mouth widening to impossibly long lengths as teeth grew a long the sides like some razor edged tentacle. The abdomen tore open, revealing squirming pink tentacles and organ pulp feeding the writhing mass as one arm atrophied and another grew into some dark, hideous flesh extension that wrapped onto Sephiroth's back like a horrible, fleshy imitation of a wing.

Sephiroth himself began to distort with the addition of so much cellular material, neck thickening and lengthening as his skin grew darker. His clothing seemed to melt away as if only an extension of his body and his legs thickened and pulsed into something akin to worms or large tree roots as another Incident survivor grabbed a leg and began fusing with him, the slimy skin glistening from sweat and melting onto the rocky surface of the path as it shuddered. The torso tore open as the head disappeared into Sephiroth's leg, the rib cage warping into some semblance of a maw as the lungs and heart dissolved into reddish, pulpy flesh that drooled out between the ribs turned teeth to be used elsewhere. It happened all so quickly, but all so slow to the observers.

And the stench. Exposed organs and running fluids steamed in the frigid air and sent plumes of noxious fumes into the air as a familiar shape began to meld from the churning bodies.

Tifa looked away as the horrible moans and the sounds of sickly flesh meshing together, holding onto Cloud's arm as she gagged. He sucked in a sharp breath as her icy fingers touched his hot arm. "I can't..." she whispered. This was too much. She felt his eyes on her, and she looked up to match his gaze. His eyes were bloodshot and the eyelids puffy.

"He's tryin' to mess with my head again. It's not gonna work." he said through gritted teeth. Tifa could hear the barely contained disgust and fear in his voice.

She tentatively nodded, studying his strained face and doubting eyes; he was looking for reassurance from _her_. She was doubtful herself, but if he believed she believed in him maybe Cloud would be fine. "I know it won't work, Cloud." she said in a quiet, firm voice.

A growl issued from behind them; they turned to see Nanaki with his teeth bared. "Before they finish!" He closed his amber eye and a moment later a screech issued from the amalgamation of writhing bodies as a large fire spell charred them, adding to the growing smell. Cloud and Tifa separated and prepared to fight anew, the pugilist hoping that her words helped her maybe childhood friend keep his head on his shoulders.

Looking at the squirming mass in front of her, she wondered if that could be taken in a literal sense. Whatever Cloud was he didn't deserve this end.

One of the fusing creatures leaned towards them as it elongated into some blue and malformed appendage, what was left of the mouth opened and spewed forth an inky slime that Nanaki barely managed to dodge before Cloud sliced into the tentacle, the acid burning the rocks where it had splattered. The warrior let out a groan as he neared the churning, changing mass of flesh, pausing until Tifa let loose a lightning spell that knocked him out of his stupor and burning an arm about to grasp onto Cloud's forearm.

 _ **'Reunion.'**_

It raged in his head. Reunion. The creature was so very repulsive in sight and scent, but he wanted so badly to put his hand on it, somewhere, anywhere then bury his face into the pulpy flesh. It was calling to something inside him, that thing that _wasn't_ him. Reunion. Reunion. Reunion. Mother. Join Mother. Cloud had his sword held in front of him, as if it could block that psychic assault on his mind, the voices screaming and singing. He glanced at the thing before slicing at it, several oozing eyes boring into his soul as gore drenched the bluish hide, the cellular material moving to heal the burns. It made clicking sounds and moans as air released from any still intact faces, the mouths vomiting acid at the two other opponents.

 _ **'Mother needs you. Mother is hurt, Cloud.'**_

 _ **'Do your duty, puppet.'**_

"Cloud!" It was Tifa.

He looked back at her, those red eyes full of concern and worry for _him_ before prepping another fire spell, blood from an injury covering half her face. Tifa knew who he was. He wasn't those familiar faces that disappeared into an ocean of flesh. A sharp pain exploded on his shoulder as a tentacle wrapped around his flesh and dragged him closer. Cloud tried to pull away before tripping as more thin, stinking lines of flesh wrapped about him, dripping remnant blood and pushing him closer to one of Jenova's toothy maws created just for him, the black sheep of her 'family'. She called to him sweetly as he screamed out in terror; no, _he_ did not want this. The flesh cocooned him, and he placed the Buster Sword in front of the waiting hole to buy him some sort of time as his feet firmly kept to the sides of the maw, gurgling and shooting more fleshy strands at him as a droning sound vibrated in his brain. His skin felt itchy and his eyes burned, a pressure building behind them. He gagged on the warm stinking air that issued forth from the toothy mouth, ever closer to bringing him into the fold.

 ** _'Belong with me.'_**

Maybe he did belong here.

Everything burned a second before he was pushed into that alien mouth, the tentacle letting him go and the flesh covering him giving way to fresher, frigid air that he breathed in lungfuls of while crawling away. A moment later a barrage of bullets flew into Jenova, then shouts as more spells slammed into the creature. Cloud looked up at it, the same monstrous form that they had fought after Aerith was killed by Sephiroth. It clicked in his head.

Jenova killed her. They never followed Sephiroth, it was this thing.

He readied his blade as it cooed to him. Reunion. Reunion. Reunion. Completion, Wholeness. Come back to the everything that is the beginning and the end and become Mother-

He dared to slice into it, his heart aching as it screamed out of half a dozen mouths as ichor oozed from the deep wound. It sounded like a plea for help, a cry asking why he would do such a thing to his Mother. He gritted his teeth and slammed the Buster Sword into an attacking tentacle before again striking at it again, watching as a giant shuriken flew by and a steady pop of bullets coming from behind him.

His friends were here. He felt his mind clear a little more. Cloud wiped the filthy slime that coated him from his face and then leaping up to strike at the head before it could muster up its innate magics, the injury that blossomed from its jaw like appendage repairing itself as he came to land. Another fire spell and the healing halted, the flesh writhing.

 _ **'Save me, Cloud.'**_

 _ **'Reunion. Become one with me.'**_

Cloud seized up as a flash of pain went through his head, and a tentacle wrapped around his neck and lifted him many feet above the ground. The mouths chattered and whispered to the warrior; join. Reunion. Reunion. Reunion. He felt some horrible sensation on the skin of his neck as his windpipe was squeezed, the burning as if his skin was in contact with acid. He grasped at the blue limb and kicked the air, trying to open his airway again. Gloved fingers slowly slipped into the flesh, and he tried to scream.

He was fortunate enough that Cid had good legs, because the next thing he knew the cranky pilot was slicing through the fibrous tentacle with his lance. The warrior fell to the ground gasping for air as the tentacle writhed on the ground next to him before Cid charred it with a fire spell. Barret stomped by and shot ever more bullets at the vile monstrosity, creating a gory hole near what looked like a breast after another barrage. Several fire and lightning spells went off at the same time as Jenova swiped at Yuffie, Tifa grasping and pulling the ninja out of the way before she was impaled.

Cloud watched in dread fascination as the burning creature retreated from he and his friends with an alien swiftness; it seemed to smile at him, black eyes and oozing mouth stretched wide before falling from the pathway and into the crags below to some unknown destination. In front of them all laid the black materia, glistening and glowing a malevolent darkness. It was theirs. They finally recovered it.

Cloud sat on the ground and cleared his mind after emptying his stomach, retching several times off the path's edge. The horrible chants were someplace far in the corner of his mind now, somewhere manageable again. He took off his filthy gloves and rubbed his eyes, a black gunk spread on his fingers as he pulled them away. A shiver went down his spine, and he quickly wiped it away on his pants before Tifa could see it; she worried enough as it was. He was fine, he fought it off.

Tifa crouched down next to him, her eyes still so full of worry and terror as she studied the warrior. Haunted eyes that had seen too much today. Ribbons of flesh clung to his backside, his neck and shoulder raw as if someone tried to tear the skin off with patches of blood dribbling here and there, congealed goo matting his usually soft and light spikes of hair and clinging to skin and clothing. He searched Tifa, too, his friend still bloodied and limping, a sclera dyed red from some attack on her eye. He shook his head.

"I'll be fine. Worry about yourself first, Tifa." he croaked.

She put a hand near his shoulder, green wisps pouring out of her palm. "You were almost eaten."

He grunted. Being eaten would have been a nicer fate than what had awaited him. As soon as he was healed enough to move without significant pain he pressed Tifa to heal herself, putting one of his stronger potions in her hand to help her heal quicker. She was resilient, but he knew that battle nearly broke her, or maybe it did and she was hiding it. Cloud took hesitant steps towards that evil black orb, and, after looking it over for a minute, he plucked it from the ground. Looking back at his friends he knew what he had to do; he couldn't trust himself with the black materia for long, not with Sephiroth still out there, not while the voices still plagued his mind despite their now quiet murmurs. Someone needed to hold onto it, someone strong...

 _ **'The beginning and the end. Soon. Join. Reunion.'**_


End file.
